


Machiavellian

by Mustachiest



Series: Ask Box Prompts [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: M/M, The power of friendship, Tom Riddle's Era
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-06
Updated: 2018-03-06
Packaged: 2019-03-27 21:07:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,739
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13889139
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mustachiest/pseuds/Mustachiest
Summary: A story about a boy obsessed with Niccolo Machiavelli  and a boy who teaches him to care.





	Machiavellian

**Author's Note:**

  * For [snaxarba](https://archiveofourown.org/users/snaxarba/gifts).



> If you want your prompts come to life send me an ask at my tumblr blog : Mustachiest

**Pairing: Harry Potter/Tom Riddle (I know you :”))**

**Rating: Teen**

**Word Count : 2.6k words**

**A/N : The prompt got kinda convoluted the longer I wrote, sorry mum. NO BETA because I live on the edge. Sorry for any mistakes I wrote this late at night.**

* * *

##  **.MACHIAVELLIAN.**

_Since it is difficult to join them together, it is safer to be feared than to be loved when one of the two must be lacking._

**_\- Niccolo Machiavelli_ **

* * *

Tom Marvolo Riddle was an orphan with good looks, good brains and a great sense of everything there is to be, he had everything to survive in the world where everybody fights for the top.  _The weak die and the strong survive_  is what rang on every orphan’s mind as they all stare into the abyss that is their future.

Maybe it was because of that very reason why they hated him so much. He had everything they had to strive for without actually working for it. How everything that they find hard to achieve came so easy to the young boy.

They called him the freak, the devil’s child. They told him that he was so unwanted that his mother died when she first laid her eyes upon him ** _(the next morning, Eric Whalley broke his leg upon falling down the staircase)._**

Despite what they say, Tom Riddle was actually born with emotions.

He, like all the other children who were brought forth into this world, once wore rose-tinted lenses.

But it didn’t take long for those lenses to break under the force of the other orphan’s cruelty.

The shards of his innocence and naivety scarred the way he saw the world and he doesn’t think that it will be the same ever again.

Maybe that was the reason why he was so misanthropic, maybe that was the reason how they still call him  _freak_ , maybe that was the reason his mother died, maybe that was the reason his father never came to get him, maybe- 

There was a lot of maybes in Tom’s life but in the end, he doesn’t care because all he wants now is for everyone to feel the pain and suffering he had felt under the hands of the cruel world.

He  ~~will~~  was be better than everyone else in this no good orphanage. He had  _it_ , after all, the ability to make reality do his bidding, the ability to twist and turn the mortal realm in whatever way he chose.

Tom swears he will repay them for everything they had done to him. He will rise above their  _filth_ , and one day,  **one day** , they all will  ** _kneel_** _and **beg** before him to show mercy, **but he wouldn’t.**_

His heart was filled with so much anguish and hate, it made Hecate frown with pity.

* * *

_“Of mankind we may say in general they are fickle, hypocritical, and greedy of gain.”_

**_― Niccolò Machiavelli, The Prince_ **

* * *

Harry James Potter was his new roommate.

The young boy had emerald eyes that had laugh lines around the edges, uncommonly tanned skin and hair so wild Tom wondered if it had its own brain. The boy was unnervingly polite and often shrunk to himself when Tom noticed him.

Tom dismissed him, sure that despite the boy’s current facade, he would be as loud and as irritating as the other orphans when the time comes.

 _‘The boy would be just like all the other roommates he had,_ ’ he thinks,  _‘disgustingly childish and immature.’_

Tom makes a bet with himself on when the boy would break, and leave for another room ( _next Monday_ ).

He frowns at himself, he can’t wait to be alone again.

* * *

Tom was being followed.

He could see him in his peripheral view every time he looks up from his book. It had been happening over the past few days and frankly, it wouldn’t take much to convince Tom to carve those unnerving eyes out of their sockets.

Tom was never the confrontational type, nor was he the one to choose blunt trauma over subtle manipulations, but there was a pinprick of emotion that Tom couldn’t comprehend whenever those eyes stare at him.

“What do you want?” He said, framing his words as more of an order than a question.

Somewhere inside the cramped room, Tom heard a small ‘Eep!’ and several other objects fall.

Then silence.

* * *

“ _Never attempt to win by force what can be won by deception.”_

_― **Niccolò Machiavelli, The Prince**_

* * *

His stalker, which turned out to be his new roommate, Harry Potter, stopped hiding and started following Tom like a duckling that accidentally imprinted on his person.  

The younger boy gets sniggers from the other orphans and the particularly empathetic ones try to talk him out of it, but the boy just ignores their advice.

He sits whenever Tom sits, and usually picks on a random series of objects or he entertains himself with some sort of story that Tom never gets to comprehend the plot of since it’s always changing.

Tom should be annoyed by this. He knew he should be. But somewhere, deep in the cresses of his mind, he actually doesn’t mind the comfortable silence.

He just justifies his actions by convincing himself that his intuition was telling him that Harry would be useful to him one day. The young boy would bring Tom a boon, he knows it.

* * *

There was screaming outside of his window.

His peace and quiet were being disrupted by the yelling match going on outside his window. Tom was ready to fling a book outside or ‘encourage’ someone to sew the lips of who dared disturb his reading when he heard a voice.

“HE ISN’T LIKE THAT!”

Tom knew that voice.

He hurriedly set aside his book before leaning out of the window to see if the voice really belonged to the meek green-eyed duckling he had unknowingly adopted.

There, on the vast backyard of St. Wool’s, stood Potter and Eric Whalley staring the other down, faces red and drenched in sweat.  ** _(That piece of scum, hadn’t he learned his lesson? TOUCHING WHAT WAS TOM’S! Filth like him keep polluting the world with his ignorance and stupidity. Tom should crack open his skull next, just to see if the ignoramus actually had a brain. See the crimson flow of blood streaming-)_**

Tom shakes his head to clear his thoughts.

“Wouldn’t yah see that?! Potter is defending his  _boyfwiend_.” Said Whalley, his gang of obnoxious 15-year-olds laughing like the brainless idiots they were.

Harry went as red as a brick.

Tom couldn’t hear it but Potter smirked, and then he murmured  _something_.

That  _something_  made Whalley redder than Potter was and made everyone else quiet down. Aflame with embarrassment, Whalley raised his fist high up in the air to prepare for a nose crunching blow. Nobody made a move to save Harry so the young boy crouched down and used his frail arms to protect himself.

Tom hastily ordered  _it_ to transport Harry somewhere else, to protect the boy from the bully’s meaty arms.

But nothing happened.

Adrenaline rushed through Tom’s veins as he could do nothing to save Harry. He readied himself for a cringe as he was about to see a boy shorter than him by a full head get thrown across the lawn.

High pitched screams filled the air

In a strange turn of events, Whalley, with all the glory of his gangly limbs, flew to the other side of the lawn, it was as if a giant hand plucked him out of the sky and threw him.

Eyes were drawn to the Potter as a shining white light encompassed his form.

Whispers echoed throughout the crowd of orphans who witnessed the event.

 _“Freak”_ , Tom heard an orphan said  **(Amy Benson, he later discovered when she was taken by the doctors to the hospital because of intensive injury to her jawline due to falling down the stairs)**.

But before anyone could take further action, cloaked men suddenly popped into existence.

Tom hid inside his wardrobe because for once, he was actually  _afraid_  of what would happen.

He just hopes Potter could keep himself safe.

( _He hasn’t made use of him yet_ , Tom said to reassure himself)

* * *

_“Men should be either treated generously or destroyed, because they take revenge for slight injuries - for heavy ones they cannot.”_

**_― Niccolò Machiavelli_ **

* * *

The next day, it seems as if nobody remembered the incident.

News traveled faster than an automobile in St. Wool’s, it was simply strange that Potter wasn’t teased to be Satan in human guise by the other orphans.

Speaking of Potter, he was curled up into a ball and refused to leave the room, the same state he was when he came to the orphanage several months ago.

It still shocked Tom that he and Potter were both  _different_.

They were both gems in the pile of worthless stones that is St. Wool’s orphanage. They were both destined for greatness. They were both are going to overthrow the concept of being useless just because they are penniless orphans.

Tom could only notice it now, but he and Potter are similar. Both have dark hair, both are unwanted orphans and both are  _specially chosen_  by Fate herself.

He could see it now. He and Harry standing side by side as they conquered what was rightfully theirs.

All he had to do now is convince the younger boy.

* * *

If there was one flaw that Tom could admit, it was his ability to empathize.

He was currently standing in the middle of their room, facing Potter’s bed as he watches him curled up like an armadillo. He hesitated. One wrong word and everything could come crashing down.

“I remember what happened yesterday.”

Potter froze.

“I want you to look at me,” Tom said with, uncharacteristic of him, a soft and mellow voice.

Eyes the shade of jewelry the women at church wore peeked through Potter’s long fringe.

“I’m not scared of you, the same way you are not scared of me.”

Potter uncovered his face and stared at Tom with interest and wonder. His eyes were shining with hope and Tom could see the endless shades of green in Potter’s captivating eyes.

But hope suddenly vacated the younger boy’s eyes. Potter looked away and stared at a random spot on their creaky floorboards.

“But I’m a  _freak_.” He quietly whispered.

“ _Freaks_? Yes. But does being a freak have to be a bad thing?’

Potter didn’t reply.

“You and I? We were chosen. We were hand-picked by Fate because we of all people deserve this power that we currently hold in our hands! Yes! We’re “freaks”! But that doesn’t mean we have to abide by the laws of men who are lesser than us!” Tom declared, looking at the boy before him with passionate eyes.

“I swear to you. You and I will  ** _never_**  be “freaks” in the eyes of the world again. We will rise above those who have wronged us Potter, and never shall we be tormented again.”

In the course of his tirade, Harry was now staring at him with wet eyes, which only emboldened Tom to ask for what he truly wanted in the first place.

He held out his hand to the younger boy.

“Be my right-hand man Potter”

A second ticked by

”Join me.”

Seconds ticked by between them and Potter finally smiled.

“Call me Harry.”

And thus, a pact was formed between the two of them. Magic streamed out of their cores as they recognized the other’s promise to each other, and to the future.

* * *

_“I’m not interested in preserving the status quo; I want to overthrow it.”_ _  
**―** _ **_Niccolò Machiavelli_ **

* * *

Tom always wondered why Harry was so kind.

He stands by what he said when he first became friends with the shorter boy.

The both of them are indeed similar, both have dark hair, both are unwanted orphans, and (only recently discovered) both have the talent to speak to snakes.

But at the same time, they were similar, they were also  _very_ different.

Where Tom was cruel, Harry was kind.

Tom had the same outlooks on life as Machiavelli, while Harry still wore rose-tinted glasses, broken and damaged, but he still wore them.

Tom asked Harry about this one time and Harry replied with a phrase that plagued Tom with thoughts and dreams on what it meant.

“You, my dear  _Tom-Tom_  are a great man. I’ve decided to join you 7 years ago for the very reason that I desire to help you how to become a good one.”

Tom tripped him for calling him Tom-Tom.

* * *

Tom saw what Harry meant when they were on the roof of the astronomy tower.

They were in their 5th year of Hogwarts and Tom was made a prefect for that school year. Harry was scolding him for being too cruel to Abraxas Malfoy after the blonde had an unusual bout of incompetence which resulted to Harry being drenched in a potion and rushed to the Madame Chang.

Tired and frustrated, Tom only replied:

_“Any man who tries to be good all the time is bound to come to ruin among the great number who are not good. Hence a prince who wants to keep his authority must learn how not to be good, and use that knowledge, or refrain from using it, as necessity requires.”_

Harry raised an eyebrow, and without dropping the beat continues the string of Machiavellian quotes:

_“Therefore the best fortress is to be found in the love of the people, for although you may have fortresses they will not save you if you are hated by the people.”_

Tom gave a fond smirk at their repartee.

“I didn’t know you read ‘The Prince’.” He said while looking at the Harry who has now decided to rest his torso upon the cold roof tiles. Tom renewed Harr’s heating charm which caused Harry to purr and yawn.

“It’s basically part of the job description of being your friend.”

Tom snorted and rolled his eyes.

“I want you to see the world from a different perspective, Tom.” Harry said as he outstretched his hand to reach the stars. “I know you like Machiavelli, but he isn’t the only philosopher. I quote  _‘“And it ought to be remembered that there is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things’_.”

Harry gestured Tom to lay down with him.

“It’s hard for the both of us to overcome the scars etched into our very bones. I will not stop you if you want to continue your reign as ‘ _the supreme overlord of the skies and the earth’_ ”

Tom sent a wandless stinging hex at him.

“Ouch!”

“You deserve it.”

Harry smiled and rolled his eyes.

“What I basically mean to say is to look at the future,  _our_  future with a lighter perspective. We’re both orphans Tom, you have seen the scars on my back. I don’t want you to die with no one else but I. The world will remember you, Tom. Your name would be etched into history, pureblood or no. Don’t forget the small things Tom.”

He held Tom’s hand and Harry placed his fingers to point at a star.

( _Polaris_ , his brain points out as he stares into it  _Constellation Cartography, page 31, by L. Sinistra_ , it adds.)

“I don’t have a silver tongue like you, but I want to tell you to be Polaris. The star that will be the one to guide us to greatness. Yes, Machiavelli said:  _“It ought to be remembered that there is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things.”_ But I believe that you have what it takes. I take that back. I don’t believe. I know.”

Tom smiles at the night sky fondly, holding Harry’s hand as they point at constellations till the break of dawn.

* * *

_“He who becomes a Prince through the favour of the people should always keep on good terms with them; which it is easy for him to do, since all they ask is not to be oppressed”_

**_― Niccolò Machiavelli, The Prince_ **

* * *

_.Nox._

 

_If you want your prompts come to life send me an ask at my tumblr blog :[Mustachiest](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/mustachiest)_

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: Character A is a pessimist and hates the world, Character B is an optimist and loves to brighten up their own world. Character A + B meet and B is determined to make A see the best in life. Character A starts to see it, just not on their own, but with B alongside them
> 
> -snaxarba
> 
> If you want your prompts come to life send me an ask at my tumblr blog : Mustachiest


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